Trump: "We had to take down the existing" White House East Wing structure
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Left, machinery tears down a section of the East Wing of the White House on Wednesday; right, President Trump displays a rendering of his proposed $250 million White House ballroom in the Oval Office of the White House on Wednesday. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images; Alex Wong/Getty Images
President Trump on Wednesday defended the $300 million expansion project that includes demolition of the White House East Wing after previously saying his ballroom construction plans "won't interfere with the current building."
The big picture: Trump is facing criticism over the construction that was initially projected to cost $200 million, with the Washington, D.C.-based National Trust for Historic Preservation saying in a letter to administration officials this week that the planned 90,000-square-foot ballroom "will overwhelm the White House itself," which is some 55,000 square feet.
Driving the news: A reporter said to Trump in the Oval Office Wednesday that many people were surprised that the entire East Wing would be demolished, after the president said in July that the ballroom would be near the building "but not touching it."
- "Certain areas are being left," said Trump of the privately funded project.
- "We determined that after really a tremendous amount of study with some of the best architects in the world, we determined that really knocking it down, trying to use a little section, the East Wing was not much. It was not much left from the original," he added.
- "In order to do it properly, we had to take down the existing structure."
Zoom in: A White House official told Axios on Wednesday evening that the East Wing "is being modernized" from its 1902 and 1942 constructions to support the ballroom project and the future home of the East Wing.
- "The scope and size of the project has always been subject to vary as the process developed," the official said via email.
State of play: The White House was constructed between 1792 and 1800, and the East Wing traditionally housed the first lady's offices after it was built in 1902. It underwent a major expansion and renovation in 1942.
- The White House Historical Association notes that the presidential complex that we know today "is largely due to the renovation" led by President Truman, with construction taking place from 1948-1952.
- Trump told reporters Wednesday that a story was added in 1948-1949 that was "not particularly nice" and the building was "very much changed from what it was originally."
Worth noting: "In some ways, the cries of disapproval are coming too late," CNN reports.
- "Renderings released by the White House in July showed the ballroom sitting atop where the East Wing used to sit, and an official press release at the time stated it would sit 'where the small, heavily changed, and reconstructed East Wing currently sits.'"
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